This piece was originally launched in 2014 and is now much the worse for wear. It celebrates the role of women in the cultural and economic life of Derry.
Clare Crockett gave up her acting career (IMDb) to become a Servant Sister. She is pictured in the info board along with the five postulants who died with her during a 2016 earthquake in Playa Prieta, Ecuador. A web site has been established in her memory and a movie made about her life; there have been calls to make her a saint (Irish News).
Painted by UV Arts (tw) in Derry’s Brandywell, where she originally came from (BelTel).
“Sr Clare Crockett was born in Derry 14th November 1982. The daughter of Gerard and Margaret Crockett. During a Holy Week Retreat in Spain in the year 2000 she experienced the intensity of the Lord’s Death and Resurrection that led to a deep conversion of her life. Sr Clare entered the Servant Sisters of the House of the Mother 11th August 2001. She went to found a new community in Jacksonville, Florida in October 2006. Sr Clare took Perpetual vows 8th September 2010. In 2014, Sr Clare undertook the mission in Ecuador. She died in an Earthquake, protecting her pupils 16th April 2016. She was buried in Derry 2nd May 2016.”
“To live in the hearts of those left behind is not to die.” Above is the main piece in a new (2022-11) memorial garden next to Fáılte Feırste Thıar dedicated to young people from the Divis area who have passed away (Belfast Media). There are two smaller pieces on the opposite wall and one next to the alley (immediately below), and together they form the space for a memorial garden. “There is hope on the horizon: May love and laughter be our guide as navigate the tides of grief and despair. … Gone too soon, but cherished eternal.”
With support from Peace IV, Belfast City Council, and the Housing Executive.
“”The cause of labour is the cause of Ireland, and the cause of Ireland is the cause of labour” – James Connolly”. From The Irish Flag, 1916.
The renovation and expansion of Áras Uí Chonghaile (web) was officially opened in 2019 and included “a bespoke corten steel extension that has an intricate perforated image of Connolly’s face” (RIBAJ).
Falls Road, west Belfast, a short distance from the house in which Connolly lived for a time – see the Peter Moloney collection.
This is Wee Nuls’s (web | ig) street art celebrating the success of the ‘menstruation matters’ (ig) campaign for free period products and the passage of the Period Products Bill.
After Britain’s declaration of war against France in 1793, the United Irishmen – who hoped for French support for a rebellion in Ireland – could no longer meet openly. In Belfast, meetings were held at Dr [Benjamin] Franklin’s tavern, also called “Peggy Barclay’s” after its owner, under the guise of a social group called the Muddlers’ Club.
The true nature of the group was betrayed to the authorities in 1796 by Isabella “Belle” Martin, a serving girl in the tavern (Romanticsm Anthology | Belfast Entries | Belfast Media | Joe Baker). As the text in the Peter Strain mural above concludes, “Half a dozen of them saw the inside of a Scottish prison as a result” and the club dissolved. (The text surrounding Martin’s profile is from Glenn Patterson’s book, A Mill For Grinding Old People Young – this was the name of Peggy Barclay’s inn when she left the city centre for the Buttermilk Loney (now Skegoniell Avenue) on the Shore Road in north Belfast.
The tavern, in Sugarhouse Entry, later become a hotel before eventually being destroyed in the WWII blitz. Sugarhouse Entry still exists but has been impassable since 1972 when it was closed off as part of the “ring of steel” securing Belfast city centre (DC Tours).
“Where is our Alternative Ulster? – download paused.” Alternative Ulster was a fanzine (Fb | Musical Revolutions) and later a magazine (Issuu) and radio show covering the Belfast music and arts scene until March 2012; the name was then used for the Stiff Little Fingers’ song (youtube) in 1978.
By Verz (Fb) and Belfast One (web) in Fountain Street, Belfast.
Belfast’s first maternity hospital – the Humane Female Society For The Relief Of Lying-In Women – was in Donegall Street, perhaps in the building that sat over the Exchange Place entry, from 1794 to 1830, when it moved to Clifton Street (Mcafee). It was run entirely by women (info board in I Was Sick And Ye Visited Me).
The illustration is by Peter Strain (web) in Exchange Place.
Paddy Duffy Collection 